I think I’m going to do it.
I squeeze his bones so hard he cries out, and I am vibrating, and the smoke is growing stronger and soon the alarm will cry and?—
“Stop.”
Karia’s voice, at my back.
She doesn’t touch me, but she’s here.
And not for me.
“Oh,” I say quietly as Cosmo digs his fingers into my wrist. His grip is strong and he is doing his best to be unyielding even as he grunts out frustration. But as I watch a bead of sweat roll along his cheekbone, falling down the edge of his jawline, I know he can’t fight me off. I could stay here all day. I just fucking might.“Nowyou want to talk to me?” The words are for Karia.
Her fingertips come to my spine. Gentle, fluttering, hesitant.
Is she finally scared?
“I always want to talk to you, Sullen,” she says softly, and there is no trembling in her voice.
I inhale through my nose.
An acrid burn works its way down my lungs.
Cosmo is panting now.
He is trying to push me back.
He can’t.
He’ll fail.
I can burn him alive.
“You weren’t there, when I woke up,” I say, closing my eyes tight, ignoring Cosmo swearing under his breath, the shakiness in his forearms, bare beneath my gloves.
Karia taps along my spine in a soothing pattern, like a surface-level massage. It feels so good, just this from her, I want to groan.
I want to give in.
But she wasn’t there.
I woke up alone.
“You weren’t there,” I say again, then I snap my eyes open, and I see Cosmo’s dilated pupils. But he isn’t fighting anymore. There’s something hungry in his gaze, like he wants to eat me alive. Or maybe, like hewantsme to hurt him.
Perhaps Karia and I are not the only ones infected with this particular sickness inside Haunt Muren.
“And instead,” I continue, holding Cosmo’s gaze as he grips my wrists. “You were withhim.”
Amusement sparks in his black-green eyes, dimples forming in his face. Sweat still beads along his brow, but I think he likes the way he’s so close to burning.
“Nothing happened between us,” Karia says quietly, and it isn’t until this moment when she says it that I realize it’s exactly what I needed to hear. To know.
Relief. It’s what unknots in my chest, loosening my throat.
She’s still mine.
“Nothing happened, and we need to talk.” Her fingers move but a moment later, her arms come around my body, hugging me to her from behind. She feels slight against me, but strong, too, and the softness of her breasts against my back is soothing. “Let him go. You’ll have forever with me.”
